Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has acquired Redbox Entertainment in an effort to make a content and distribution offering geared toward value-conscious consumers.
The acquisition adds more than 11,000 new films and TV shows to the company’s 40,000-title streaming catalog. It also includes a Free Live TV platform with more than 145 free, ad-supported streaming television channels and transactional video-on-demand platforms available on various devices.
Additionally, the 36,000 Redbox kiosks will increase the company’s advertising touchpoints beyond free streaming services and give it new marketing tools for promoting original movies.
Plans for the acquisition were first announced in May.
To fuel its continued growth, the company has recently appointed two key media executives. Former Redbox CEO Galen C. Smith has been appointed executive vice chairman of Redbox and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, where he will be in charge of the business’s long-term growth strategies.
Jonathan Katz is the new president of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. At Turner Broadcasting, Scripps Networks and Katz Networks, he had held senior executive positions. In his new position, Katz will be in charge of the company’s operating divisions, including studios that create original content, Redbox kiosks and streaming services.
“I’ve been looking forward to the day Redbox would become part of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment family–and today is that day. The Redbox brand is a fixture in American entertainment and now joins our powerful portfolio of streaming brands, including Crackle, Popcornflix and Chicken Soup for the Soul,” said William J. Rouhana, Jr., chairman and CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, in a statement.
The CEO noted that the acquisition gives the company “immediate scale, growing our film and television library to over 51,000 assets; establishing a broad complement of AVOD, TVOD and FAST channel services; reaching millions of viewers across dozens of platforms; and adding Redbox’s … kiosks nationwide, with a customer loyalty program that has over 40 million members.”
These collective assets, he said, “create a fully formed streaming business for a new era of digital entertainment that we anticipate will accelerate the growth and profitability of our company well ahead of our original plans.”